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April/May Lite Entry - The Red Rock Jackals

Right then, about time I actually put some work in!

So, this month's challenge actually works out rather nicely for me; I'm considering starting a small monthly game at first level, so I will very likely be using this map as the groups first 'dungeon delve'. I had already settled on the idea of using my entry from last month's challenge (Red Rock Bay) as the group's starting point, so the natural progression now is to invent a source of trouble for the town, and then give that trouble a home! Incidentally, the reason I originally found and joined this forum was to learn to make maps so I could really develop and flesh out a campaign world for my home games. This small game and the maps here will be my first real foray into that world, so that's pretty exciting too. Anyway. Since the group will be more story/role-play driven, I've kept the actual 'dungeon' on the smallish side.

Farmer Kells shook his head in concern as he watched his son repair the fence. This was the third time this month that the fence had been knocked over, and he counted four sheep missing from his flock, which was much worse than the previous two incursions. It didn't make sense to him; he hadn't lost an animal to the jackals since he had first built this fence, almost 8 years ago. Why the creatures had finally decided to come back, and how they'd managed to get in, he just didn't know. What he did know was that the next capable looking group of travelers to pass through town wouldn't have any trouble finding work.

What Farmer Kells doesn't know is that the reason the jackals have figured out how to get through his fence is because they've recently been 'adopted' by a pack of gnolls, who are both the brains and the brawn of this operation. Technically, the lowest level gnolls I could find were 4th level, but I'm not really concerned by that; they fit the environment well, so these gnolls will be scaled down to level 1.

### LATEST WIP ###

So, a spring in the hills, sheltered by the bluffs and surrounded by caves. The colors were taken from the original Red Rock Bay map, as again, they're now part of a set. Otherwise, I just have the preliminary work done so far, with lots of details yet to add. I have my water feature and my two entrances (the narrow tunnel up top will be connecting the areas that the gnolls have occupied with the actual jackal warrens), though I still don't quite know what I'm going to do for the defenses. We'll see. Suggestions, as always, are welcome!

Also, apparently the grid is not saving/displaying outside of Gimp. I'm using 2.8... does anyone know how to make it into an actual layer? I suppose I could manually trace it, but there has to be an easier way than that...